Without limiting the scope of the present disclosure, its background is described with reference to testing hydrocarbon formations, as an example.
It is well known in the subterranean well drilling and completion art to perform tests on formations intersected by a wellbore. Such tests are typically performed in order to determine geological or other physical properties of the formation and fluids contained therein. For example, parameters such as permeability, porosity, fluid resistivity, temperature, pressure, fluid composition and saturation pressure may be determined. These and other characteristics of the formation and fluid contained therein may be determined by performing tests on the formation before the well is completed.
One type of testing procedure that is commonly performed is to obtain fluid samples from the formation to, among other things, determine the composition of the formation fluids. In this procedure, it is important to obtain samples of the formation fluid that are representative of the fluids as they exist in the formation. In a typical sampling procedure, samples of the formation fluids may be obtained by lowering a downhole formation fluid sampler having one or more sampling chambers into the wellbore on a conveyance such as a wireline, slickline, coiled tubing, jointed tubing or the like. When the downhole formation fluid sampler reaches the desired depth, ports are opened to allow collection of one or more formation fluid samples. The ports may be actuated in variety of ways such as by electrical, hydraulic or mechanical methods. Once the ports are opened, formation fluids travel through the ports and the samples of the formation fluids are collected within the sampling chambers. After the samples have been collected, the downhole formation fluid sampler may be withdrawn from the wellbore so that the formation fluid samples may be analyzed.